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The real reason Steve Sidwell left Chelsea

Flame-haired midfielder was cut a slim slice of the profit cake

Following his transfer to Chelsea in July 2007, Steve Sidwell insisted he was not at the club to ‘make up the numbers’. Despite this, he only ended up playing fifteen times for the Blues, and was shipped off to the Midlands a few weeks ago.

Sidwell’s lack of first team football, however, may not have been the only motivation for his departure from West London. According to a friend of The Spoiler, each Chelsea player is given a quarterly cheque to remunerate them for image rights of merchandise sold in the club shop (each time an item is sold featuring a particular player’s name, said player receives a small amount of the profit). Most players’ cheques ran into the thousands, provoking much jubilation as the envelopes were opened. Sidwell, however, was less bothered about punching the air – one of his was for the princely sum of £16.80.